AURORA, Colo. — A class of recruits is nearing the end of their months-long training to become Aurora police officers.
In their final days of lessons, they spent Thursday training on how to respond to an active shooter situation. And their instructor’s real-world experience makes a difference in these lessons.
“They first have to get it in their mind that they’re going into harm’s way, and going into protect human life,” said Agent Kris McDowell, the instructor leading Thursday’s training.
The group of nine recruits practiced clearing rooms during a drill simulating an active shooter in an Aurora apartment building.
In reality, the group ran drills at a training facility. McDowell could pause after each drill, to walk through what went right and what went wrong.
“We want them to communicate with each other. What they want to happen – be clear, be specific,” he said.
McDowell knows from experience.
He was on duty the night of the Aurora Theater shooting, just a few blocks away, when the first calls came in.
“Once we pulled up on the curb, outside the theater, I remember looking back on my partner. I realized at that moment that this was active,” he remembers. “It was about 10 years’ worth of chaos in one night. The training kicked in, I just had to get in there and deal with the shooter.”
Living in Colorado, McDowell knows his recruits are very familiar with mass casualty events and real-life active shooter scenarios in their own communities. Perhaps they grew up running lockdown drills in school or watched the news when things happened in their home state or around the country.
He lived through it and hopes they never will. But he wants to make sure they’re ready to respond and to heal afterward.
“I want them to be equipped, I want them to be prepared, I want them to have the tactics in mind, but the mindset to know these things can and will happen and they can get through it, they really can,” he said.
“Groups of us that were there [in Aurora], we gathered together and talked and talked for weeks. And we got through it. We survived the night, and we emotionally recovered from it because we leaned on each other. I want them to know they can, too.”
This group of recruits will graduate in just a few weeks, and then officially begin their careers in law enforcement. McDowell is excited to see what they do next.
“I’m happy to send them out, and I’m just proud of every one of them that they get to that point.”
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